Cambodia’s jet ski national team won a gold medal in the second round of the Jet Ski World Series 2022 held in Lake Havasu City in the US state of Arizona last week.
This has boosted the confidence of the sport’s governing body in the Kingdom – the Watercraft Federation of Cambodia (WFC) – of achieving its goal of winning at least two gold medals while Cambodia has “home field” advantage at the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2023.
National team member Kai Vansiden won the gold medal in the Novice Ski Stock category while competing against jet ski riders from around the globe.
WFC president Nos Sleh said he considered gold medallist Vansiden as one of the true pioneers of the sport in the Kingdom through his gold medal achievement. He said the federation and the team have been working together to strengthen their abilities and techniques in order to win gold medals at the 2023 SEA Games.
Karl Heinrich Knauf, WCF vice-president and president of the Flamingo Jet Ski Team of Thailand, has long been a supporter of the Cambodian team and helped them to participate in many competitions around the region and beyond so that the team could gain experience and increase the skill of its members.
Sleh said Knauf’s support was one of the key things that enabled Vansiden to win his gold medal this past week.
“Our two most prominent team members – Saly Ou Moeut and Min Mustan – are already capable of winning world-class medals, but now we have another world-class gold medallist in Vansiden, who is from the next generation of young talent. I feel we are well-prepared for the 2023 SEA Games,” he added.
Ou Moeut competed in five events this year in Lake Havasu, but did not win any medals due to a fourth place finish that disqualified him from moving forward in the competition because he had previously won a world gold medal and needed to be in the top three to qualify.
